Vanished
by lillithfire1
Summary: BtVS and Angel crossover, Giles is missing and the gang from LA come to SunnyD to help find him, takes place during season 4 of buffy (post 'pangs') and season 1 of angel (post 'remember me') SpikeWillow, CordiDoyle, and AngelBuffy eventually.
1. Default Chapter

**Takes place during season 4 of BTVS after "Pangs" and during Season one of Angel after "I will remember"**

**Part one**__

_What the hell is wrong with this guy?_  Buffy thought as she punched him squarely in the face.  _He's not even trying to hurt me_.  

"Hello?" Buffy cried exasperated, "are we dancing or fighting?"

She ducked a half hearted punch from the smug vampire.

"You know some of us have homework to do, fang face!" she continued to say as she swept her leg out in an effort to trip the vampire.  He jumped forward to avoid the attack and slammed into Buffy.  She rolled backwards and recovered quickly only to realize she had lost her stake in the process.  She looked up at her foe and smiled sarcastically. 

"That didn't even sting," she said to him mockingly, "you know, you're putting your kind to shame, and not to mention wasting a very busy slayer's time."

He just smiled and blew her a kiss.  She made a disgusted face and kicked him across the graveyard into a mausoleum.  She smiled, proud of herself, and walked towards him, pausing to pick up her stake.  

"Score one for the self-respecting women out there," she said preparing for his counterattack, "I'm just making a difference, one disgusting vampire pig at a time."

Instead of attacking her, he simply stood up and brushed himself off, smiling at her all the while.

"A friend of mine told me vampires got you hot," he said in a silky voice, "I just thought I might have a chance, beautiful. That's all."

"Okay.  I can either stake you right now, and make it much easier on the both of us, or I can just kick your ass some more," Buffy threatened though clenched teeth, "Which do you prefer?  Cause I'm thinking I could go ether way."

"The same friend would like me to ask you how Giles is these days," he continued with no regard to her threats.

She narrowed her eyes at the smiling vampire.  He winked at her and ran off into the nearby woods.  She was about to go after him when something stopped her.  _That was weird.  How does he.... _

"Giles!" she cried, suddenly understanding that the vampire had only been playing with her, "I'm such an idiot!  That little shit was trying to wasting my time!"

With that she ran off in the direction of her former watcher's residence.

Buffy knocked on the door to Giles' home.  To her surprise, the door slowly creaked open.  She cautiously walked into the dim house, her senses on high alert.  She fumbled around on the wall to locate the light switch.  She flicked it to no avail.  Someone had cut the power.  _Fuck._  It was so dark she couldn't see anything.  She felt vulnerable, a feeling Buffy wasn't used to.  Just then she cried out as she tripped over a body on the floor.  _Giles!_  She had to get him out of there.  Lifting him easily, she carried him outside the house.  The light was bright enough outside for her to soon realize it wasn't Giles.  It was Spike she carried.  She let out an _eep!_ of surprise and fought back the urge to drop him right there.  Instead she laid him down on the ground and tried to wake him up.

"Spike!" she tentatively whispered in his ear, "Wake up!  Is anyone still inside the house?  Hello?!"

He murmured and groaned in pain.

"Wake up!" she whispered again in a much less tender volume.

"What the bloody hell?" he growled, trying to focus on the little face that hovered over his.  His vision was blurred, but he could make out that it was Buffy.  He felt her breath on his face and was suddenly very aware that this was the first time they had been this close since her little witch friend's blasted spell.

"Spike! Come on, is anyone still in the house?" she demanded uncomfortable with him staring at her like he was.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and croaked a "no".

"Do you remember what happened?" she asked.

"Not very much.  I think some bloke knocked me out," he said rubbing the back of his head in pain.

"Who, Spike?!" she cried in a panicked voice, grabbing him roughly by the shirt.

"Lay off slayer!' he growled pulling away from her grasp, "don't you have any bloody sympathy, woman?  I got a bleeding head ache."

She sighed in annoyance and sat back, "some help you are."

She knew she needed to get the power back on in the house, so she took a deep breath and went in cautiously.  Despite her caution she still managed to trip over something.  Spike heard the loud bang and went in to find Buffy sitting on the ground grasping her shin. 

"So much for slayer sense," he chuckled.

"Bite me...oh wait, you can't!" she replied with venom.

He glared at her and lit his Zippo.  He held it up to search for the fuse box.  He fumbled around the room for a while and finally located it.  Within minutes the room was flooded in light.  Buffy squinted her eyes.

"Well, now that your whole vampire thing isn't going to pan out, at least you can make a living at being an electrician," she stated looking around the disheveled room.

"And if you'd stop tripping over things and learn how to thank people that help you, your whole slayer thing might just work out for you," he replied coolly.

"Well good thing you're not exactly people," she snapped and got up to use the phone, limping a bit.  

Willow was curled up on her bed back at her and Buffy's dorm.  She had loud country music blaring though out the room.  Xander always said it was the music of pain and, boy, was she in pain.  Oz was still gone.  He was not coming back, and to top it all off, everyone was still very sensitive about her little magic coops, especially Buffy.  She guessed kissing Spike wasn't all that great after all....not that she ever wondered how that might feel.  Come on, you can't have a crush on something evil and dead.  Well you can, you just don't tell anyone about it.  And it wasn't a crush!  Man, she was one confused witch.  The phone ringing startled her out of her thoughts.  She shut off the radio and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Willow!  It's Buffy," Buffy replied.

"Oh hey-"

"Willow, Giles is missing and his house is trashed."

"Oh, God," Willow murmured, "have you called Xander yet?"

"No, not yet, I was going to call him next."

"No, no I'll call him and we'll be right there....wait, where's Spike?"

"Drinking Giles' alcohol," she replied dryly.

"Does he have anything to do with this?"

"I doubt it.  He was knocked out when I got here and besides, his old buddies would probably think he's a joke because he's been neutered and all."

"Watch it slayer!" she could hear Spike shouting in the back ground.

"Well, does he at least remember anything?" Willow asked ignoring Spike's outburst.

"Of course he doesn't," Buffy replied in an annoyed voice, "Since when is he of any help to us?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry my massive head trauma inconveniences you!" Spike shouted, again. "And remind me who got the bleeding lights back on?"

"He's driving me crazy, Willow," Buffy whispered. 

"Okay, we'll be there soon," Willow sighed and hung up the phone. 

Xander knocked on Giles' door and looked down at a very worried Willow. 

"It's going to be fine Will.  We'll find Giles and kill whatever big bad guy is behind all this!" he said putting a reassuring arm around her shoulder.

She smiled up at him as Buffy opened the door looking very unnerved.  

"This is third rate booze!" they heard Spike slur.

"Hi guys," Buffy said though a forced smile, "don't mind the intoxicated vampire."

"I am not drunk!" Spike yelled.

Buffy sighed and moved over to let her friends in.  Willow immediately gave Buffy a big hug.  

"I'm so worried about Giles," she whimpered into her shoulder.

"I know.  Me too," Buffy replied.

Xander leaned over and pulled the two petite girls into his arms.

"Ugh," Spike said in disgust flopping on the couch with a bottle of Jack Daniels, "I've come over a bit queasy."

"Could it be all the third rate booze you've been funneling?" Buffy asked easing out of the group hug.

"Yeah, yuck, I can smell you from here," Willow said with a scrunched up nose. 

"And you smell like my dad!" Xander added disgustedly.

Spike glared at Xander and said, "un-like your alcoholic pop, I made the intelligent decision not to produce a sad excuse for a whelp like you."

"My dad is not an alcoholic!  For your information, he never goes to meetings," Xander shot back pointing a finger at Spike.   

"Ah, Red," Spike said ignoring Xander and turning his attention to Willow, "I trust you brought your 'impressive' magic skills with you as always."

She shifted her eyes to the floor trying to hide her hurt.

"So, Buffy, what do we know?" Xander asked avoiding Willow's obvious discomfort.

"Well, aside from Giles being missing, not much." she replied.  

"Based on the looks of things, he didn't leave willingly," Willow said surveying the disheveled room.

"Ya think?" Spike quipped.

Buffy glared at him and said "I think vamps had something to do with this.  Before I got here, I ran into a very annoying vampire in the graveyard.  I really didn't like him." She absentmindedly picked up some of Giles' books that were scattered across the floor.  "I know he had something to do with Giles' disappearance." 

"Who would want to hurt Giles?" Willow asked.

"Someone who is going to very sorry when I find them," Buffy replied angrily.

"Rupert, we meet again" Angelus smiled wickedly at him, "and you're in quite the same position you were in last time.  I trust the ropes aren't too tight?"

Giles groaned as Angelus pulled them tighter around his already raw wrists.  Giles' head bobbed as he tried to stay conscious.  The vampires goons had beat him mercilessly before Angelus had even arrived.  Now it seemed that he was planning on continuing that trend. 

"Aw, are you in pain?" Angelus asked him as he roughly dug his finger into the gash on Giles' forehead licking the blood off his finger.

Giles moaned from the searing pain.

"You're a monster," he croaked.

"Why, thank you, Rupert," Angelus sneered, "now enough with the pleasantries.  Let's get down to business."

Angelus crouched before Giles wearing his game face. 

"See, we need to meet up with an old girlfriend of mind and I don't think you're not properly attired for the affair," with that he viciously bit into Giles' neck causing him to scream out once again from the pain. 


	2. Cordelia's gift

**Part 2**

Buffy walked into Giles' apartment.   She had been all over Sunnydale looking for anything that could help her find Giles, and now at nearly two am, she still had no idea what happened to him.  She had hit up Willy's bar but the usual crowd of seedy customers had no idea what she was talking about.  None of them seemed any shadier than normal and Willy seemed to be just as clueless.  She figured the threat must have just recently arrived in town and word hadn't gotten out yet.   Buffy hung up her leather jacket and surveyed the living room that was full of sleeping bodies.  Willow and Xander had volunteered to stay at Giles' house to search for anything unusual there.  Currently Xander was passed out in an arm chair with Giles' date book on the floor next to him.  Willow was curled up asleep on the couch with a very passed out Spike, who was leaning on her shoulder.  Buffy raised an eyebrow at this, but decided Willow must be exhausted, so she let it go.  Giles' laptop was sitting on the coffee table in front of Willow.  She must have been hacking into Giles' e-mail account.  Buffy sighed.  She felt so lost without his guidance and she had no leads whatsoever.  She went to the kitchen to find something to drink.  Opening the refrigerator door, she discovered that bachelors weren't very good at keeping up on their grocery shopping.  Suddenly the phone rang, alarming her.

She scrambled to answer it before it woke up the others.

"Hello?" she asked breathlessly.

"Buffy?  Where's Giles," the familiar voice of Cordelia Chase asked.

"Good question," Buffy replied moving out of earshot from her sleeping friends.

"What?  Whatever, listen we have a big problem!'

"Why, what happened?" Buffy asked recognizing the worry in Cordelia's voice.

"It's about Angel.  I kind of did something really bad."

"I had nothing to do with it, Buffy!" she could hear a male voice yell in the back ground.

"Shut it, Doyle!" Cordelia hissed back at him, "and keep your eyes on the road!"

"Cordelia!" Buffy cried into the receiver, "What the hell did you do to Angel?!  You didn't..."

"No nothing like that!  Come on Buffy, I don't do vampires," Cordelia interrupted with her usual tact.

Buffy sighed.  "Okay whatever, Cordelia could you please tell me what happened with out the personal references?"

"Well if I could get a word in... anyway, I wanted to get him something nice to cheer him up because he'd been more broody then usual after your visit.  So of course, I went shopping."  

Buffy rolled her eyes at that but continued to listen.

"Doyle told me about this little weird magic shop downtown and I decided to check it out.  You know how hard it can be to shop for Angel.  I mean, what could he possibly need?  Aside from getting laid and I'm so set with the consequences of that one!  So I was looking through all these boring magic books, which I think he might already own, when this ugly old lady approaches me.  She tells me she's heard of Angel and had this way to make him human.  So I'm like, 'okay weird old lady, why do you want to help him?'  And she's all, 'I have my price'.  At this point I'm thinking, okay, I have a check book and I'm pretty sure that being human is worth whatever price she'd charge, so I agreed to hear her out."

"Cut to the chase Cordelia," Buffy interrupted getting impatient.

"Okay, okay!" she replied, "so anyway, we did this spell on him-"

"That I had nothing to do with!" Buffy heard Doyle yell again.

"Stop interrupting!" Cordelia warned him then turned her attention back to the phone, "I wanted it to be a surprise so..."

"Hold on!   Please tell me didn't do a spell on Angel without asking him first?!"

"Well…"  

"And you did it with the guidance of a creepy lady you didn't even know, no less," Buffy snapped.  This was so stupid, even for Cordelia.

"But hold on I'm not finished!  So it pretty much went horribly wrong because Angel starts screaming in pain, and I kid you not, he divided in two!  Like the little gross things they made us look at under microscopes in bio.  While that was going on, the old witchy lady morphs this skanky whore demon!"

"Oh my God..."

"Yeah I know!  That stupid bitch lied to me!  The spell did turn Angel human but it had a slight side affect.  It kinda separated out the demon from inside of him.  Turns out the slut actually believed that she could get the demon Angel to marry her or something ridiculous like that!  So you can guess what he had to say to that...he snapped her neck.  It was horrible!   Then, here comes the worst part, he totally punched me out!  You should see the bruise he left!  My nose could have been broken!"

"So wait, this demon Angel...he's Angelus?"

"Yeah, but like on steroids!  He's ten times more powerful...Buffy, I was so scared."

"He didn't kill you...why wouldn't he kill you?"

"How the hell should I know...we're pretty sure he's coming your way, though.  Before I passed out I remember him saying some stuff about revenge.  Buffy, you're in a lot of danger.  I am really sorry.  I feel like such an idiot."

"Well you should!  You put Angel, and all of us, in a great deal of danger!  Cordelia, you're lucky to be alive!  Hold on a second, Angel is human?"

"Yeah, that's what I said isn't it?  He's asleep right now, though.  That spell really took a lot out of him.  We're on our way to you right now.  We have to find a way to get the demon back where he belongs and Angel whole again."

"We'll get to that later.  Where are you guys right now, anyway?"

"About two hours out of Sunnydale."

"Okay, good.  Hurry, cause we probably need Angel to fix this whole thing.  And Cordelia, Giles is missing.  I have a strange hunch who might have taken him and if I'm right he's in a lot of danger, too."

_Willow was sitting alone at The Bronze.  Her friends were nowhere in sight, and she felt so lonely without them.  She fiddled with her straw wrapper and stared down into her drink.  If only she hadn't been so depressed about Oz, they may have stayed with her.  No one here was even paying attention to her.  She wished the floor would just swallow her up.  Suddenly she got the sensation she was being watched and looked up.  She found herself locking eyes with Spike.  He smirked at her.  He looked so good in that leather duster of his.  He walked over to her in his confident sexy way._

_'Hello luv' he said pursing his lips, 'Care to dance?'  _

_Before she could answer he swept her up in his arms.  She felt a burning blush creep up her neck as his cool hands pressed against the small of her back.  She held onto him as he swung her out onto the dance floor.  His lips touched her earlobe gently, sending shivers though her.  _

_'You look good enough to eat,' he whispered.  _

_She looked over to see Oz staring at them.  She couldn't speak.  His eyes were filled with tears.  He shook his head and turned to leave.  _

_'Willow?'_

"Willow?  Wake up!" Buffy voice brought her slowly out of her dream. "We've got big problems."

"Huh?" Willow mumbled as she sleepily opened her eyes, quickly remembering where she was.  She soon realized she was curled up on the couch with Spike leaning on her shoulder.  She gasped and pushed him off her as she rose off the couch.  He murmured something but didn't seem to wake up.

"Angelus is back...in an even deadlier demon way." Buffy said, and quickly brought Willow up to speed.

"Oh my God...do you think he has Giles?" Willow asked.

The expression on Buffy's face spoke volumes.  Xander stirred and opened his eyes.

"Who has Giles?" he asked suddenly feeling very alert.

"Angelus," Buffy stated simply.

"What?  How?" he stammered.

"Long story short, Cordelia is an idiot." she replied.

"Wait, now, Cordi did what with him?" he asked shocked.

"No, no, no.  She tried to make him human as a cheer up present.  And in Cordelia fashion, she didn't think twice about it when she chose a very dangerous way to do it. Now we have a supped up version of Angelus and a human Angel," Willow explained.

"Two Angels?" he asked.

"In simple terms...not really," Buffy said, "What we do have is an evil, powerful demon coming after us.  I need you guys to be very careful.  I really don't need more friends to rescue.  Willow, I need you to get on the spell that demon woman used.  Unfortunately, she's no longer any help to us, being dead and all." 

"Well, well," Spike said suddenly startling them, "that bloody wanker is back.  Now it's time for some revenge!"

"What the hell are you going to do?  Insult him to death?" Buffy snapped.

"I was just offering my services, is all.  I'm supposing he's got your watcher?"

"That's what I'm guessing. However, I've been all over Sunnydale and I turned up nothing," she replied.

"Well if I know Angelus, and he has Giles, he's got something big planned.  I'm figuring he'll come find you pretty soon." Spike stated.

"If that's the case, we'd better be ready," Buffy said, "Xander, you come with me.  We need to get some supplies from the dorm.  Willow, start researching."

"Right," Willow said sitting down in front of the laptop.

"What about me?" Spike asked.

"You can stay out of Willow's way," she glared at him, "and try to stay sober, ok?  Remember, Angelus may not know you're fixed."

She smiled at his angry glare and grabbed her coat before following Xander out the door.

It had begun to rain outside.  Spike was staring out the window watching Xander and Buffy walking away.  _Good, _he thought,_ at least her stupid perfect hair will get all wet and so will the rest of her._ His face turned thoughtful as he tried to remember exactly what she was wearing on that tight little body of hers.  He absentmindedly pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

"You can't smoke that in here," Willow said not looking up from the laptop she feverously typed away on.

"Huh?" Spike asked still thinking about Buffy in a wet tee shirt.

"Giles may be missing but that doesn't mean you can stink up his house with cigarette smoke."

"Yeah, right, I knew you'd be all self-righteous," he mumbled, stubbing out his cigarette on the underside of his boot, "you know, maybe if you lived on the edge a little, people wouldn't think you were such a ninny."

"Okay Spike.  You want me to live on the edge?  Take chances?  Good plan, I'll just recklessly do another spell.  Maybe you'll fall in love with Xander this time."

Spike huffed and sat down on the couch next to her.

"We didn't fall in love," he mumbled, "We just wanted to get married." 

Willow rolled her eyes but said nothing.

"You know, I don't really think you're a ninny.  You seem to have this whole computer thing down pretty good," he said gesturing at the laptop.

"Oh great, Willow the Nerd.  Thanks Spike, but I'd rather be a ninny."

Spike smiled looking at her profile and said, "Red, you know you're not a nerd, you're actually-"

"I got it!  I found the spell!  It's pretty simple considering... the only problem is getting the two of them in the same place at the same time," she said frowning at the screen.

"Good luck with that one," Spike scoffed, "You do understand that this is Angelus we are talking about, and if I heard correctly, he's been upgraded to a more powerful model."

"Yeah but we have Buffy," Willow said optimistically as she wrote down some items on a piece of paper, "Come on, we have to get some supplies."

She got up and put the list in her pocket.  Spike looked thoughtfully at Willow's white tank top.  

"What?" she asked confused.

"You know it is raining," he said.

"Yeah, so?  I'm the kind of witch that doesn't melt in rain," she said smiling goofily.

"I know that, but..." he said gesturing to her shirt.

"Oh.  Ohhhh," she said, suddenly very aware of the fact she was also wearing a white bra.  She crossed her arms uncomfortably.

"Come on, you can where my jacket," Spike said handing it to her.

"Thanks.  I guess it's not like you're gonna catch a cold or anything."

"Here, take this," Buffy handed the full duffel bag to Xander effortlessly.  

He almost dropped it but recovered quickly, "That was a little embarrassing."

"Sorry," Buffy said as she wiped the rain off her face. "Why does it have to rain?"

"Because God hates us," he said with a shrug. "Let's hurry up I don't really like leaving Willow alone with Spike, neutered or not."

"Yeah me neither," Buffy admitted as they walked towards Giles' house.  "I just don't trust him.  Not that he's ever given me a reason to think otherwise.  Plus they shouldn't be alone with Angelus running loose.  Spike isn't much help in the defending department right now."

"Come on, Buffy.  Willow is smart.  Don't worry about her.  What makes you think he'd even defend her anyway?"

"Maybe the whole I'd stake his ass if he didn't thing?"

"Good point."

They walked into the house and Buffy was surprised when she didn't see Willow or Spike there.  She sat down in front of the open laptop and read the page that was still on the screen.

"Looks like she found a spell to fix Cordelia's stupidity," she commented reading it.

"They have a spell for that?" Xander asked leaning over her shoulder to read along with her.  

Buffy smiled at him, "I guess they must have gone to get some supplies."

"So much for them not being alone with each other," Xander said.

They were silent for a moment, both very thoughtful.

"Let's go after them," Buffy said.

"Good plan," Xander said handing Buffy some stakes from her bag.__


	3. Something red

**Part three**:

Willow wrapped the big duster around her.  It was raining harder and she was freezing cold.  The duster was so heavy.  Plus it reeked of cigarettes.  She wondered how he wore this thing all the time.  Granted it was warm but, he's a vampire.  Why would he need warmth?  Spike had given up on trying to smoke a cigarette in this rain.  Every time he lit one it was soggy after the second drag.  He looked at Willow though the corner of his eye.  She looked lost in his jacket.  He wondered what she'd have looked like all wet and if her little nips would be beaming.  Maybe he shouldn't have offered his jacket to her, after all.  Damn him for being a gentleman.

"So..." Willow's dainty voice interrupted his dirty thoughts, "where'd you get the duster from?"

"I killed its owner," he replied matter of factly.

"Huh, that's...nice," 

He laughed, "You've gotta lighten up a bit, Red."

"So you're joking?"

"No."

"Oh, okay."

She breathed in a bit uncomfortably.  The silence stretched between them.  The gentle patter of the rain started to annoy Willow.  She looked at Spike.  With the chip in his head he really didn't seem that scary anymore.  Not any less sexy, but definitely less scary.  She liked guys that inspired bit of fear in her.  Like Oz.  Sweet, sardonic Oz, offset by his uncontrollable wolfy side.  She had always been a dog person.  Spike had more feline qualities to him.  He was like a pompous cat, all sleek and sauntry.  Full of himself.  She wondered if he missed seeing his own reflection.  Maybe he liked what was on the inside more.  Lately it was becoming clear that he was proud of being evil and without his ability to strike fear in someone, he was at a loss.  

"Spike, you really miss killing things don't you?" she asked innocently.

He looked at her like he was considering something for the first time.

"Yeah, it really pumps you, ya know?  It's like a drug.  Knowing you have complete control over a living thing.  I act like its all fun and games but it's rather spiritual, now that I think about it."

"I've killed things before."

"Like what," he laughed.

"Vamps.  I've dusted a few in my day," she said proud of herself.

"Felt good, huh?" 

"Yeah but more in a 'yay I'm not dead' kinda way." 

"Buffy feels it.  She feeds off it.  I know I can see it in her eyes when she's battling a big nasty.  Very passionate, she is."

"You think she's pretty?"

Spike scoffed and reached around Willow's waist, dipping his hand into the side pocket. Willow nearly jumped until she felt his fingers wrap around the pack of cigarettes. Maybe it was her imagination, but she could have sworn that he kept his hand in her pocket for a few seconds longer than he needed to.

"So you didn't enjoy kissing her?" she suddenly blurted out. Instantly, he pulled his hand away. He expertly slid a cigarette from the pack and pulled his lighter up to his face. "I don't really remember it that much."

Willow raised an eyebrow.

 "Look, Red, I'm not blind.  She's fucking gorgeous but she's my sworn enemy.  I mean she is the vampire slayer."

They walked in silence for a while.  Spike secretly yelling at himself for admitting that he thought Buffy was hot, while Willow secretly wondered just how it would feel to kiss a vampire.

"What is it like to bite somebody?"

"Like biting into a big Mac.  What do you think it's like?!"

"Sex?"

He choked on the cigarette smoke and started laughing.  She looked hurt.

"I guess it depends on who you're biting."

"If you were to, say, bite Buffy, how do you think that would feel?"

"Like conquest," he stated simply and took another drag of his cigarette, "with a little bit of sex mixed in I suppose."

"And what would it be like to bite me?"

He furrowed his brows and stopped to look at her questioningly.

"Uhhh-"

"Look boys! Lunch!" came a voice. Willow snapped out of her reverie and saw a vampire standing a few feet ahead of them.  Behind him were two more vampires.

"Shit," Willow swore.

"Willow!" Spike cried in mock horror.  The vampires started to advance. 

"What do we do now?" Willow shrieked.

"Run witch!" Spike yelled grabbing her arm, "if they catch you I may never see my duster again!"

They ran all the way to the magic shop.  Willow desperately wrestled with the doorknob, as if turning it over and over would suddenly make it open.  Spike pushed her out of the way and kicked the door in.  They ran inside, slammed the door and pushed a nearby shelf in front of it.  Spike looked hesitantly out the window.

"Looks like they lost sight of us," he sighed and looked at Willow, who was breathing heavily. "What's the matter?  You out of breath?"

"What do you think?" she breathed.

"I don't know.  I'm always out of breath."

"Okay, let's get the supplies and get out of here," Willow suggested.

She ran around the shop burying items in the coat pockets of the duster.  Spike stood by the window as a lookout.  He smoothly slid his eyes over to watch her study the bottles and potions.  A drop of rain rolled down her cheek.  It looked like a tear.  He stepped towards her and wiped it away.  She looked up at him questioningly.

"Like heaven," he whispered.

"What?"

"Biting you."

He brushed a piece of hair from her face and reached down to grasp her little arms in his hands.  Suddenly his face scrunched into a look of confusion as he felt something hard resting against her arm. Before she could utter a word of protest, he pulled a stake out of the jacket's sleeve.

"You had a stake hidden in my jacket?!" he asked accusingly.

"Well I needed some protection.  You'd go all 'ahh!' if you tried to hit anything!"

"Like you could protect yourself with this toothpick."

Suddenly she had a stake to his heart.  He looked down at it in surprise.

"I always carry a spare." she said in a low voice.

She was so close to him.  He could feel her heart beating under her rising chest.  He slowly pushed the stake away from his heart and took it from her.  Her hand remained on his chest as she looked up into his eyes.  He looked away abruptly, clearing his throat.

"Right then...let's get going," he said softly and backed away from her. 

"Yeah, let's," she said in a voice equally as soft.

Buffy turned the corner with Xander in tow.  The rain was finally letting up.   

"Buffy, how the hell are we gonna stop him anyway?" Xander asked.

"Right now all I'm concerned with is getting Willow and Spike back to the house."

They walked down the abandoned street in silence, Xander wondering just how harmless Spike really was.  Buffy was too rapped up in listening for any suspicious noises to think much of anything.  She heard a twig snap and stopped short causing Xander to bump into her.  

"What?" he asked.

"Shh, I heard a noise," she whispered. 

They waited silently for a minute, Buffy straining to hear any other noises.  She heard nothing.  Shrugging she continued walking followed by a more alert Xander.  They crossed the street and walked onto a sidewalk lined by tall over grown bushes.  

Suddenly Angelus stepped out of the bushes in front of them.  Xander gasped and turned to run but slammed right into another vampire.  He laughed nervously and tried to back away but the vampire grabbed his arms and turned him around.  

"Let him go!" Buffy demanded.

"Long time no see, Buffy," Angelus smirked at her tightening a hand around her arm and turning her towards him, "Don't I get a kiss hello?"

"You can get an ass kicking hello," she replied knocking his hand off.

"Now, Buffy, that's not how you treat an ex-lover.  Especially one who has two of your close friends' lives in his hands."

"What do you want?"

"Your head on a plate but that comes later, but for now, just your cooperation.  Come with me and I promise I won't hurt Giles or The Boy Wonder."

"Since when can I trust you?"

"Since I'll kill them if you don't.  Now, be a good girl and give me your weapons," he held out his hand.

She glared at him defiantly.  Angelus nodded at the vampire holding Xander captive.  The vampire gingerly took one of Xander's fingers and broke it with a sickening snap.  Buffy winced.  Xander responded with a painful scream that was quickly silenced by the vampire's hand going roughly over his mouth.  She quickly took the couple of stakes she had and handed them to Angelus.

He smiled, "And the one in your boot."

She sighed heavily and bent down to retrieve that one also.  He threw them into the bushes. 

"Now you might take this as kinky," he said pulling some rope out of his pockets, "but I don't want to risk you getting away."

He tied her wrists together behind her back.  She protested a bit but was silent for fear of Xander's remaining fingers.  He was still whimpering.  One of the other vamps had secured a blindfold over his eyes and tied his hands also.  Angelus then tied the blindfold over her eyes.  She felt herself being lifted as he swung her over his shoulder.  She cried out.

"Oh would you relax?" he growled. "I'm not gonna hurt you...yet.  We still have some fun ahead."

"If I found out that you hurt Giles..." she warned.

He laughed, "Please. You're grossly outnumbered.  And not to mention that I could kill two people you love," he said spiting out the word 'love' in disgust, "I can assure you I can obtain your other interests.  Like your mother, for example.  Or maybe Willow." He felt Buffy stiffen.  "I always had a thing for that witch.  She would be a lovely treat...all soft and innocent, I wonder if she'd like it if I-"

"Shut up," Buffy snapped.

He just laughed at her.  Her blood was boiling but she knew she was in no position to fight back.  Just by the way he picked her up; she knew he was at least twice as strong as she was.  She didn't mind risking her life but her friends?  Her mother's?  Good thing her mother picked this weekend to fly out to Boston for the gallery.  She wished she could get in touch with Willow somehow.  Xander was whimpering again.  They walked for another ten minutes.  She tried to listen to the sounds around her for a clue as to where they were being taken.  It must be close to 3:30 by now.  She swore she heard a train in the distance.  Then felt like she was being carried down some stairs and she could hear the faint sound of dripping water.  Suddenly she was dropped to the ground roughly.  She heard Angelus chuckle, then a creaky door slam.  She thought she was alone.  Then she felt hands pulling down the blindfold and found herself face to face with Angelus.

"Hello, beautiful," he growled.

"You're disgusting." She spit in his face.

He smiled and wiped her spit from his face, then roughly grabbed her by the chin.  

"You're feistier than I remember!  Wait till you're bleeding and screaming in agony!  Then we'll see how feisty you really are!" he licked up the side of her cheek and pushed her away violently.

She fell backwards from the force of it.  He got up and metal door creaked open again.  Two vampires walked in and tossed Xander to the floor.  Angelus winked at Buffy.

"We'll catch up some more later, toots." 

They left the room locking the door.  Buffy wiggled her wrists out of the bonds and scrambled to check on Xander.  She pulled the blindfold off his eyes.  Soon she realized some vamp had taken a bite out him. 

"Xander, you've been bitten!" she cried holding the blindfold to his neck.

"Only a little, at least it took the pain off my finger."

"Xander, I'm so sorry I got you into all this.  If I had paid better attention, I could have stopped it," she said, untying his wrists careful not to hurt his finger.

"And if Cordi wasn't an idiot, none this would of happened in the first place," he murmured.

She sat up against the wall and pulled Xander's head into her lap.  She rubbed his head with her hand lulling him to sleep.  Buffy was left wondering how long she would have till they came back.  And where was Giles?  How was she going to save her friends from something evil and twice as strong as herself?  Xander would be no help now; he had lost too much blood.  She sighed and hoped Willow would find away to help them.  Soon she herself succumbed to sleep. 


	4. The return of Angel

**Part four:**

Spike decided they should take the long way back to Giles' house because of the group of vamps they had run into earlier that night.  Willow was in deep thought the whole walk back.  The rain had let up, but Spike hadn't asked for his jacket back.  She wrapped it around her and smiled as the familiar scent of cigarettes engulfed her.   They had almost kissed.  She was sure of it, and it was greatly disturbing her.  Not because it was Spike who was trying to make with the kissage, but because the way her body had reacted to being so close to him.  Her heart had beaten just a little faster and her stomach had felt just a little lighter.  But now, he was avoiding looking at her.  Instead of reaching into the jacket pocket like he did earlier to get a cigarette, he simply asked her for them.  She was a bit disappointed.  That bugged her, too.  This was Spike, even if he was acting uncharacteristically nice to her…sweet even…complimenting her, protecting her, touching her gently.  The chip didn't change anything, he was still evil.  

"Are you okay?" the evil thing asked her.

"I'm a little cold," she replied in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

But he heard her.  He could hear her every time she pulled in a breath, ever time her heart beat.  He could hear the blood rushing though her veins if he concentrated enough.  The perks of being a vampire.  That and being able to talk to something that you should be eating.  You could also fuck something that you should be eating.  He wasn't entirely sure those were actually perks.  He knew he couldn't do any of those things to Willow, except maybe the talking part.  She was so pure.  You don't fuck something pure.  You love it.  But he could never love a human.  This chip was starting to make him sound like the bloody poof.

"Spike?" Willow's voice shattered though his thoughts, "Do vampires really feel love?  I mean there was Angel and Buffy, you and...Dru..." 

"You're bloody right we feel love," he said quickly, "probably more that you sun loving folk.  We have eternities to perfect it and no sodden heart to get in the way."

"Love comes from you heart, Spike."

"No," He said pointing a finger at her, "love comes from your blood and your mind.  Your heart's got nothing to do with it, Red."

She wasn't really sure what he was trying to say but she figured he was telling her that just because his heart didn't beat, doesn't mean he couldn't love.  This conversation made her nervous so she was happy to see they had arrived at Giles' house.  Spike swung open the door and Willow gasped in surprise to see Angel sitting on the couch with Cordelia and some guy she didn't know.  

"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" Spike yelled at Angel.

"Hello to you too," Angel replied.

"Willow, run!  Let's get out of here!" Spike said trying to push willow out the door.

"Down boy!" Cordelia laughed, "He's not the evil one."

"Oh right then...hello, peaches," he said obviously embarrassed about his out burst.

"Hi, you're new," Willow said staring at Doyle, "I don't believe we've met."

"Oh right!" Cordelia said suddenly, "Willow this is Doyle.  He has visions from the powers that be."

Doyle reached out to take Willow's hand, "I've heard a lot about you."

They smiled at each other still grasping hands, Willow thinking his Irish accent was sexy and Doyle wondering how such a powerful witch fit into such a small package.  Cordelia got an annoyed look in her eyes and loudly cleared her throat causing them to release each other's hands.

"Enough with the introductions," she snapped remembering all too well how Willow had made out with her last male interest.

"Jealous are we?" Spike commented.

"Angel," Willow smiled changing the subject, "you're all humany, it's cool."

"Not so much cool as warm," he asked standing and glaring at Spike. "So, Willow, Spike gets a chip in his head and suddenly Buffy thinks its okay to let him hang around you?"

Spike growled, "Bugger off, you stupid git!  Red can take care of herself!"

"He's actually been kinda helpful during all this." Willow continued, trying to ward off a potential fight by placing herself in between the two warring men.

"I have not!  Take that back!" Spike demanded.

Angel chuckled and Spike glared at him.  

Willow rolled her eyes.  "So, Angel, how are you feeling?"

"Well," he started, "as well as can be expected.  I don't really know how to explain this to you guys but I've been human before."

"Yeah…" Doyle said.

"No recently," Angel insisted, "when Buffy visited me, there was this whole day that no one but me knows about.  It's complicated, but I realized that I can't help anyone like this.  I'm weak and everyone is in danger because of that.  Including Buffy."

"But, Angel," Willow asked, "you can't want to be a vampire?"

"As much as I want to be human, I-" Angel faltered, "I love Buffy and I don't want any harm to come to her."

Spike scoffed, "You're a bloody woman, Angel.  Being human turned you so soft you're rotten, but I wouldn't worry your poofy little head about it.  Red's planning on sending that demon right back where it belongs.  In your misery-loving ass," he finished uncaringly.

"You can do that?" Doyle asked impressed.

"Yeah, but it's not that hard.  Angel's the one who has to carry the whole thing out," She replied.

Angel looked questioningly at Willow.  "Willow, why are you wearing Spike's jacket?" he inquired suspiciously.

"It was raining, nancy boy!  Where's your sense of hospitality, man?" Spike answered before Willow could respond.

"Hospitality, Spike?" Angel countered, "May I remind you that your idea of hospitality was hiring that pedophile vampire to torture me?"

"Well you stole Dru from me!" Spike shot back.

"Oh, please Spike.  You lost Dru all on your own!"

"You better watch it peaches!  I'll shish-ka-bob you myself this time!" Spike yelled balling his hands into fists.

"Go ahead!  I'd love to see this chip in action."

"Stop it!  This isn't helping!" Willow shouted pushing the two away from each other.  "Angel, Buffy needs us right now.  Bickering with Spike is only going to get in the way." 

"Speaking of Buffy, where is that fashion senseless girl anyway?" Cordelia quipped.

Willow shrugged and turned to Angel who suddenly looked really bad.  He had his eyes tightly closed and the color had drained from his face.  He tensed and groaned in pain, grasping his forehead.  Willow ran forward to try and catch him as he swayed dangerously.  She was barely able to hold him up so Cordelia and Doyle stepped forward and helped him sit on the couch.

"Bloody hell, now you're swooning like a woman, too," Spike mocked and was met with two sets of fiery eyes.

"What the hell was that all about, Angel?" Cordelia asked bluntly, turning her attention back to him and resting a hand on his forehead.

"I, I'm not sure." he said rubbing his eyes, "I think I just saw Buffy.  It was really hazy."

"Now, you're having visions, Angel?" Doyle asked concerned, "Isn't that my area of expertise?"

Cordelia went to the bathroom and returned with a wet cloth.  "Put this on your forehead," she said handing it to Angel.  "You're burning up."

The girls helped him lie down on the couch.  Willow put a pillow under his head while Cordelia slipped off his shoes.

"If I had known that's all it took to get two women all over me, I would of come up a bit dizzy myself a while ago." Spike commented as he opened up a bottle of brown liquor, sniffed it, and slumped into a nearby chair.

"Spike, Buffy said not to drink!" Willow chastised. 

"She isn't here, now is she?" he replied taking a swig out of the decanter.

"Hey, you mind if I have a glass?" Doyle asked eyeing the liquor.  

Cordelia rolled her eyes and looked at Willow, "Did I mention Doyle drinks like a fish?  Apparently the powers that be aren't so picky about who gets a share in their power.  They don't seem to care how badly their choices dress either."

Willow looked at her funny and turned back to Angel, "So did Buffy seem to be in any danger?"

"I'm not sure," he answered slowly becoming more lucid. "Like I said it was hazy."

"Where did you see Buffy last?" Doyle asked pouring himself a glass of liquor.

"Last we saw of her, she was leaving with Xander to go get weapons," Willow replied in a worry-riddled voice.

Cordelia's eye twitched at the mention of Xander's name.

"Don't worry; she's the slayer, right?  She can definitely take care of herself," Doyle assured Willow with a smile. 

Cordelia stifled a yawn and said, "Anyways, we're all really tired.  It's like, what, four in the morning?  What could we possible do to help her at this hour?" 

"You're right.  If they aren't back in the morning, we'll deal with it then," Willow sighed turning to Spike and Doyle, "Can you guys help me bring Angel upstairs?"

"I don't think so," Spike muttered sipping the liquor.

She widened her eyes in annoyance, "Now, Spike!"

"Fine, fine.  Don't get your knickers in a twist."

Doyle gulped down the contents of his glass, slammed it on the table and went to help Willow. Willow had pulled Angel back into a standing position but he was too weak to walk.  He mumbled something about not wanting to move but pretty much cooperated with her.  Doyle and Spike moved forward to support him on their shoulders and walked slowly up the stairs followed closely by Willow.

"He's a heavy git, isn't he?" Spike grunted as they deposited Angel on Giles' bed.

Angel quickly drifted off into sleep.  Cordelia walked in behind them and weakly smiled at Willow.

"Willow," Cordelia said, "I'm really sorry I got us into this mess."

"You really should be apologizing to Angel," Willow responded.

"I did," Cordelia sighed, "but he's too worried about Buffy to forgive me yet."

"Well, you guys have been traveling all night and you must be exhausted," Willow stated ignoring Cordelia's guised requested for comfort.

"Now that you mention it, if you guys don't mind I'm gonna sleep in Giles' guest room." Cordi said in a slightly disappointed voice as she begins descending the stairs.

"Where am I gonna sleep?" Doyle asked.

Cordi paused and gestured to the bed Angel was occupying.  

"No way!" he protested, "Angel and I don't even hug, princess, I'm not sharing a bed with him!"

"Ugh! Fine!" she cried exasperated, "you can sleep in the guest room."

"With you?" Doyle looked excited.

"On the floor!" she pointed at him warningly.

"Have it your way, you don't know what you're missing!" he said as they walked downstairs and towards the guest room, Doyle pausing to say good night to Willow with a smile.

"And hopefully I won't find out," Cordelia snapped.

"I guess that leaves you and me to share the living room," Willow said to Spike.

"Yeah, you wouldn't catch me dead sharing the bed with peaches, so I guess that's about right," Spike said walking down the stairs.

"You are dead," Willow replied following him.

"You still wouldn't catch me."

"Well, you're pretty sneaky."

"Yeah, I am.  Wait a second... are you making fun of me?!"

"Don't worry about it Spike.  I was just kidding." she smirked at him and took off his duster.  She handed it to him and sat down on the couch.  He looked at her for a minute and then hung it up near the door.  He walked around the couch and turned on Giles' old TV.  Fiddling with the knobs and the antenna, he finally settled on a station that came in somewhat decently.  It was the home shopping channel.  Willow laughed.

"What?  It's the only thing on, Red!" he said defensively.

"Keep it down!" Cordelia shouted at them from the other room.

"Funny how even when she should be groveling for our forgiveness, she still manages to put Diana Ross to shame with her diva ante tics," Willow observed.

Spike shrugged and turned the sound down a little on the set.  He sat next to Willow on the couch.  They stared at the TV screen for a while, neither one knowing quite what to say to the other.  Spike absently took out a cigarette and placed it in his mouth.

"Don't you dare." Willow warned.

"What are you gonna do about it?" he challenged her pulling out his Zippo.

She reached over and snatched the cigarette out of his mouth.  She held it out to him with mock apology on her face.  He raised an eyebrow at her and he reached out for it, missing it as she quickly moved it out of his reach.  He growled and jumped at her, knocking them both off the couch.   They tumbled on to the floor with Willow giggling.  Willow gasped in surprise as she found herself on the floor under Spike with his arms on either side of her.  He looked down into her eyes and furrowed his brows in consideration.  Her heart beat faster as she felt his crisp blue eyes drinking her in.  She looked so damned innocent.  Her red hair was softly framing her elfin face, making her look like something out of an Irish folktale.  He suddenly felt the urge to sink his teeth into her dainty little neck.  The desire in his eyes started to scare Willow.  She pushed him away from her and pulled herself up into a sitting position against the couch.  He sat back without protest and stared at her like naughty child that had stolen the last cookie from the jar.

"Willow, I..." he whispered.

She nervously tucked a section of her hair behind her ear refusing to look at him.  Spying the discarded cigarette on the floor, she leaned over to pick it up.   She rolled it between her thumbs and fore fingers.  Then to Spike's surprise she took the Zippo out of his hands and lit it.  She pulled the smoke into her lungs and immediately started coughing.  He chuckled and tried to take it from her but she jerked it away from him.  He shrugged and lit his own.

"These taste like shit," she stated causing him to laugh again.  "Why the hell do you smoke them?"

"I don't know; they taste like shit." he offered.

She looked at him and they both laughed.  She took another drag and coughed again.

"Try not inhaling so much," he commented patting her on the back.

"Last warning!" Cordelia yelled from the guest room again.

She looked at the clock.  It was close to four thirty.  She got up and went to the kitchen to put the cigarette out in the sink.  She returned to find Spike pulling down the shades.

"I'm really worried about them," she said sitting on the couch.

"I'm sure Cordelia can handle powers that be boy," Spike said.

"Not them!  Buffy and Xander," Willow corrected with an amused smile playing on her lips.

"You heard the Irish bloke, she's the slayer.  She's fine.  And if she isn't you'll find a way to save her, I'm sure," Spike stated sitting on the far end of the couch.

"What makes you so sure?"

"She's your friend, your not going to let anything hurt her."

"I hope you're right." Willow sighed and lay down with her head on the pillow.  Soon her breathing evened out and she drifted into some much needed sleep.

"That's right, love.  Sleep.  You're gonna need it." Spike whispered, eyeing her as she slept.


	5. A simple plan

**Part five:**

Cordelia's eyes slowly opened.  In a sleepy haze she contemplated the face of the figure asleep in the bed next to her.  She let out a noise of disgust as she remembered he wasn't supposed to be in her bed.  She angrily slapped him on his shoulder which startled him awake.  He looked at her in confusion.

"Hello?" she snapped, "didn't I distinctly say floor?!"

"You were crying in you sleep," he replied, "So I came up here to comfort you.  That's it.  I didn't try to cop a feel if that's what you're thinking."

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"What was I supposed to do?  Let you whimper all night?" he asked.

"I was not whimpering," she scoffed.

"How would you know?  You were sleeping," he replied turning over and closing his eyes.

She looked at his back and sighed.  She didn't want to admit to him that she was wide awake when he climbed in the bed next to her.  Or that she was extremely relieved that at lest someone wasn't too pissed off at her to hold her while she cried.  What she had done to Angel was inexcusable and for the first time in her life she felt remorse for her actions.  Being around Angel and Doyle was starting to change her and that made her really nervous.  She stretched and got out of the bed.  Her stomach growled so she headed to the kitchen to get something to eat.   She was surprised to see Angel in the kitchen eating left over Chinese food.  He smiled at her and said "good morning".

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Eating?" he offered.

"I guess I'm just not used to it, is all."

"I figure I might as well enjoy it while I can." He stated with a mouth full of lo mien. 

"Charming," she said opening the refrigerator, "Did Buffy show up yet?"

He swallowed hard and shook his head 'no'.

She stared at him.   He was sitting on the counter digging in the Chinese food container with his fork and sporting a noodle hanging out of the side of his mouth.   The noodle disappeared into his mouth with a _slurp_.  Suddenly, the remorse that took up house in the pit of her stomach pained her, "Angel, I'm really sorry I got you into all this.  I was just trying to cheer you up.  I would never have done that if I had known what you went though with Buffy that day."

"I'm not mad at you.  I understand what you were trying to do for me.  I just wish you had asked me first," he said with a concerned face.  

"I know," Cordelia sighed and stuck her head in the refrigerator, "Giles needs a girlfriend.  There is nothing in here but Chinese food and a box of baking soda."

Angel grunted and she looked up to see him holding his head in pain.  

"Angel?" she questioned nervously.

He silenced her with his hand.  She waited for his pain to stop and an explanation as to what was wrong.  Finally he looked up with worry in his eyes.

"I know where Buffy is."  

Buffy was awakened by the clinking sound of keys going into the lock on the door of the room she and Xander were held captive in.  She shook Xander awake and rose quickly to be ready to defend herself.  Xander shied away in the corner holding his wounded finger protectively to his chest.  Angelus sauntered in followed by two of his vampire goons.  Buffy recognized the second one from the graveyard last night.  He winked at her and she wrinkled her nose in disgust. 

"Good morning," Angelus said with mock hospitality.  "I trust you slept well?"

Buffy glared at him with clenched fists.  He gestured to his goons and they stepped forward to grab Buffy.  She backed away angrily and tried to push them off her.  Her efforts were in vain and they succeeded in dragging her out of the room.  She could see Angelus walking towards Xander menacingly as they pulled her around the corner.

"Get away from him, you bastard!" she screamed at him.

The only answer she got was Xander's muffled cries.  She tried to break free as they forced her down a narrow hall way to an open door.  They tossed her inside roughly and Angelus walked in behind them soon after.  He nodded at them and they left slamming the door behind after themselves.  Her stomach dropped as she saw though the door's small window that they were walking back towards where Xander was being kept. 

"They better not hurt him," she warned Angelus.

"Now that depends on your definition of hurt," he said placing his fingers in a steeple in front of his chin.

She glared on him but said nothing.  Looking around the bare room she soon realized that it was very similar to the one she was just in, except this one had a chair in it.  A naked light bulb hung over it.  She noticed there were chains on the arms and legs of the chair.  She swallowed nervously.  

"Have a seat," Angelus gestured smirking at the obvious fear in her eyes.

She remained crouched on the floor glaring up at him.  She considered her options.  It didn't take her long, since she didn't have a whole lot of them.  She decided she wasn't going down with out a fight and launched herself at him.  He grabbed her arms effortlessly and slammed her up against the near by wall.  She grunted as he pressed his knee against her stomach pinning her tightly against the wall.

"I love it when you try to fight back.  It's so...cute," he smirked.

She struggled against him in vein.  He tightened his grip on her wrists causing her to suck her breath in quickly from the pain.  He laughed and roughly crushed his lips against hers.  Then he threw her into the chair and clamped the shackles to around her wrists before she could recover.  He chuckled when she tried to kick her legs out at him.  Soon he had her ankles shackled also.  Her eyes burned with hatred as he stood up to admire his work.

"You're not as strong as I remember.  Or maybe it's because I'm stronger," he laughed.

"You're not going to win," she threatened him.

"That's not very convincing, Buffy.  Try to remember who's tied to a chair, here?" he smirked, "Oh by the way, I have a friend I'd like you to meet."

He walked over to the door pausing to look at her before he left.

"Now don't you go anywhere," he commanded wagging a finger at her.

"Angelus has Xander and Buffy," Angel reviled to the group who had collected in Giles' living room.

"We all kind of figured that by now, Angel," Willow said in a quiet voice.

"Yeah, something a bit more specific might help," Doyle added.

"He has them locked up in the basement of the burned out high school," Angel stated.

"Like that for example," Spike quipped.

"How can you be so sure?" Willow asked.

"I think that Angelus and I have some connection.  I could see what he saw," he explained.

"What did you see?" Cordelia asked.

"Buffy is in a lot of trouble.  We need to get them as soon as possible." He replied with a stern face.

"Hold on a minute," Spike interjected narrowing his eyes at Angel, "How do we know he can't see though you're eyes?"

Angel opened his mouth to talk but couldn't think of an explanation.  He just shrugged as everyone looked at him warily.

"Wait!" Willow cried as she ran to the computer and within minutes was studying the spell the demon used on Angel.

"Ah ha!" she cried triumphantly, "It's a temporary affect of the spell.  He only can see though your eyes when you get those head aches."

"Well that's not good!" Cordelia cried, "He's had two of them around us already!  Who knows what Angelus knows!"

"Well he doesn't know what we're planning," Angel said.

"Yeah!" Doyle yelled supportively, "Uh, what are we planning?"

"Willow," Angel began, "Get that reversal spell ready.   Doyle, we're hitting the sewers."

Buffy was struggling against the shackles in an effort to escape.  She tried to rock the chair back but realized it was bolted to the floor.  She cried out in frustration as the door creaked open.  She looked up in surprise as Giles walked in the room.

"Giles!" she cried happily, "you're alive!"

He smiled at her and shut the door behind himself.

"Come on, unshackle me.  We have to save Xander!" she commanded.

He leaned against the wall and smirked at her.

"What are you wanting for?" she asked, "Where have you been?  Giles, why are you looking at me like that?"

"You know, I really thought I had trained a better slayer," he replied, "You couldn't even save your own watcher.  It's pathetic."

"Giles?" she questioned, "Look I'm sorry about what happened, but we really need to get out of here."

"I don't think you're sorry at all.  You're so wrapped up in yourself that you don't even see what's right in front of your nose, do you?  I know why I was fired from the council.  I successfully produced the sorriest excuse for a slayer I have ever laid eyes upon."

"Why are you saying this?" she asked her eyes filling with tears. "You know it's not true."

He walked over to her and lifted her up her chin with his hand, "Then why are you crying?"   

She looked at him with a mix of confusion and hurt in her eyes.

"You know what Angelus told me?" he asked her in a low voice, "He told me that the reason Angel left you was because you were the worst lay he had ever had.  I guess your mother's talents weren't passed down to you."

Buffy's face twisted into a look of disgust, "What did he do to you?"

He circled behind her and ran his hand down the side of her cheek causing Buffy to wince. 

"I think you're slayer sense is losing its touch," he said brushing her hair to the side, exposing her neck, "Didn't I teach you to recognize a vampire when you saw one?"

She cried out as she felt him slice her neck with a knife.  He ran his finger along the wound and licked her blood of it.   

"Hmmm, sweeter then I expected," he said as he walked in front of her.

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she watched him lick his lips in satisfaction.  

"Oh, don't cry.  It's only a flesh wound," he said with mock concern.

"Fuck you," she said between clenched teeth.

He punched her roughly in the mouth causing her lip to start bleeding.  She glared at him.

 "You are not Giles," she hissed. 

He punched her again.  She grunted and spit blood out of her mouth.  He grabbed her by her hair and jerked her head back.  He cocked his head and smiled at her.

"You're quite beautiful when you're angry," he said wickedly.

He leaned down and pressed his lips against hers.  She responded with muffled protests and squeals of anger.  He bit her lip and drank the blood that pooled into his mouth.  He pulled away roughly and gave her a bloody smirk.  She lowered her head in disgust at the violation she had just undertaken.

"I can't see why Angelus said that.  You seem to have a lot of spunk," he wiped his mouth with the back of his and pulled out the knife he had used on her a few minutes earlier, "Now's the time for some real fun." 

Spike watched intently as Willow poured a thick black liquid that smelled like sulfur into a glass vile.  She capped it quickly and began clearing up the supplies spilled out on the table.  

"What are you planning on doing with this stuff?" Spike asked inspecting the vile, "because you'll be hard pressed to find anybody who would drink this gunk."

"Good thing we don't have to," she replied, "All it has to do is come into contact with someone who's had the spell put on them recently to do the job."

"It's that simple?" he inquired.

"Well sort of.  The two of them have to be touching each other as well."

"Kinky," he smirked at her.

She looked at him oddly as Angel and Doyle rushed in the house.  Angel started gathering up weapons.

"I was right," he said as began packing the duffle bag with weapons. "The sewer still leads right under the school.  He has three vampires helping him, and only one guarding the door.  Apparently, he's not too concerned with us trying to get in.  He was always full of himself."

Cordelia walked in and looked at them, "What's the plan?"

"Doyle and I will take out the vampire at the sewer entrance," he explained. "He's a fledgling so it shouldn't be too hard.  He didn't even notice us sneaking in.  After that we find Buffy, Xander and Giles.   Willow is the reversal spell ready?"

"Yup, I got it right here," she replied holding up the vile.

"Good," he stated, "you can explain how to use it on the way there.  Everyone grab as many weapons as you can.  We don't know how hard it will be to take down Angelus, but remember…don't kill him."   

Spike gave a disappointed sigh.  Angel looked at him questioningly.

"You're coming with us?" he asked Spike.

"You're bloody right I am," he responded, "It's been too long since I've seen a good spot of violence.  I need some cheering up."

"Uh-huh." Angel cleared his throat, "Well we need all the help we can get.  Even if you can't hit anyone, you can carry some weapons at least."

"I can hit things!  It hurts a whole lot but I still can do some damage!" he insisted winking at Willow as she handed him a blanket.

"It's still sunny," she said softly.

She smiled, relived that he'd be going even if he was about as much help in a fight as she was.  Doyle picked up a crossbow and some stakes.  "Everyone ready for some ass kicking?" he asked with a goofy grin on his face.

"I just hope it's not our asses that get the kicking," Cordelia commented quietly.

"Let's go," Angel commanded ignoring Cordelia's comment.

They followed him out the door towards the sewer's entrance.  Spike paused, pulled a blanket over his head and followed suit.     


	6. The rescue

**Part 6:**

As the group rounded the corner of the sewer line, they heard the fledgling vampire whistling to himself.  It sounded like 'jingle bells'.  Doyle looked at Angel with an expression that read, _'amateur'._  Angel smiled at him and pulled out his stake.  He motioned for the other's to stay put and for Doyle to follow him.  They easily snuck up on the vamp and dusted him before he could start the second chorus.  Willow breathed a sigh of relief and lead the others forward to where Angel and Doyle stood.

"Aren't there any Jewish vampires?" she whispered to Cordelia who just shrugged.

They walked down a hall way that was lined with doors every few feet.  They paused before each, and Angel looked cautiously through their windows for any sign of vampires or Buffy and Xander.  Finally the came to a door that housed Angelus.  He was lounging in a chair with his feet up on the desk in front of him.  

Angel turned to the group behind him and whispered, "Angelus is in there.  I need to do this on my own.  Willow, give me the vile."

She handed it to him and whispered back, "How will we know it's you and not him?"

"Umm I'll say 'safe', okay?" he whispered, "Now go find the others." 

They tip toed passed the door, crouching under the window, and disappeared around the corner.

Cordelia looked back at Angel and mouthed the words 'be careful'.

He nodded, waited for them to be out of ear shot, then slowly turned the door knob and slipped into the room.

After a few minutes of walking, the hall way branched.  Doyle and Cordelia took one corridor and Willow and Spike proceeded down the other.  Soon Willow found the door to the room with Buffy held captive inside.  Willow could see that Buffy was tied to a chair and was bleeding quite a bit.  She motioned excitedly to the Spike and put her hand on the door knob.  Spike ran forward and stopped her.  He looked inside cautiously.

 "Come on Spike, let's get her out of there.  She looks hurt." Willow insisted in a desperate whisper.

"I found Giles," he said in a low voice.

"Really?  Come on hurry, open the door!" she said trying to push him out of the way.

Spike grabbed her, pulling her away from the door and tightly against him.  He put his hand over her mouth to silence her.

He whispered in her ear, "Shh!  I have a hunch that Giles isn't exactly himself right now, Red."

She pulled his hand way and whispered back, "If you had been tortured, you wouldn't be yourself either.  Now, stop being weirder than usual, and help me get them before the vampires catch on to us."

He retained his grip on her and replied softly, "I don't know if you noticed but Giles is, oddly enough, untied.  Buffy, on the other hand, is shackled to a chair.  Isn't it funny that he hasn't untied Buffy?  Isn't it weird that he has a bloody knife in his hand?  And why is he seemingly unharmed while Buffy is dripping with blood?"

"Okay, point taken," she sighed with he eyes full of worry, "What are we going to do?"

"I think I can knock him out good before the chip fires off.  That should give you enough time to get Buffy untied," he offered looking into her eyes.

"Why are you helping us?" she asked suddenly. 

"Uh, Red, I think we should talk about this later," he responded nervously.  He looked though the window then turned to her and asked, "Do you have a stake ready?"

"I can't stake Giles," she whimpered.

 He put his hands on her shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes. "That's not Giles anymore, Red.  If it comes to it, you are going to have to stake him.  You're a lot stronger than you think you are."  

She felt her stomach flutter and leaned in to kiss him softly on the lips.  He looked at her with confusion.

"Thank you," she whispered.

He nodded his head and turned to kick the door open.  Willow ran in behind him and started unchaining Buffy.

"Honey, I'm home!" Spike growled and punched Giles in the face.  

He put his hand to his head and waited for the pain to start radiating from the chip.  Instead he felt nothing.  Willow and Buffy both looked up in confusion.  

"Hold on a bloody second," he said in surprise.  "I can hurt beasties!"

Giles recovered from the blow quickly and decked Spike in the nose.  

"OW!  That hurt!" he growled and punched Giles again.

Willow continued to struggle with the shackles as Spike repeatedly punched Giles.

"That's for chaining me to the bleeding shower!" Spike said punching him, "That's for never letting me watch Passions!  That's for running out of Wheat-a-bix!  And that's for playing free bird on your nancy boy guitar over and over and over again!"

When he finished, Giles was lying unconscious on the floor and Spike was standing over him with a look of satisfaction in his eyes.

"A little help over here?" Willow said exasperated by her unsuccessfulness with the shackles.

Spike walked over and kicked the chair roughly causing the legs to break and allowing Buffy to slip her legs out of the shackles.  She stood up uneasily and swooned.  Willow grabbed her to prevent her from falling.

Buffy focused on Spike and asked in confusion, "What is he doing here?"

"Helping," Willow replied, smiling at him.

"I think my brain's been damaged," she stated confused.     

Willow helped Buffy walk down the corridor with a very cocky Spike leading the way.  He was basking in the glow of the violence he had just been responsible for.  They had shackled Giles and left him in the room until they found the others.  Spike greatly doubted he'd wake up anytime soon.  Suddenly they heard a scream.  Spike whipped around and looked questioningly at Willow.

"That sounded like Cordelia!" She cried.

Without further questioning, Spike ran in the direction of the screaming with a big smile of anticipation on his face.  He ran into an open room ready for battle but accidentally slammed into Doyle who had just dusted one of the vampires.  Doyle fell to the floor and grunted in pain as Spike tumbled on top of him.  Spike once again waited for the pain from the chip, but felt nothing.  He looked at Doyle questioningly but Doyle was too busy tossing a stake to Cordelia to notice anything strange.  Cordelia dropped it clumsily as the vampire grabbed her and pushed her up against the wall.  She screamed trying to ward him off with her fists.  Suddenly the vampire cried out in pain as a stake was thrown into his back.  He turned to dust leaving Cordelia punching her fists in the air, hitting nothing.  They all looked the direction from which the stake had been thrown to see Buffy leaning against the door, holding her side and breathing heavily. 

"That bastard did not know how to treat a lady," she stated angrily.

Willow ran into the room behind Buffy to see Xander on the floor leaning against the wall, near unconsciousness.  He was badly beaten and bleeding from his neck wound.

He looked up at Willow with thankfulness in his eyes and whimpered, "Medic!" 

They walked back towards the room that Angel had entered earlier.  Doyle cautiously went into the room, with stake in hand, and found Angel sitting on the floor bleeding from a cut on his forehead.  

"Safe," Angel breathed.

Doyle smiled at him as the other's walked into after him.

"Looks like you got your ass kicked," Cordelia quipped, supporting Xander's weight.

Willow crouched down next to Angel and lifted up his hand to inspect it.  It was cut up with shards of glass stuck in it.

"My hand got cut up a bit when I shoved the vile into his chest." He explained.

"It worked," she said in awe.

"You were worried it wouldn't?!" Doyle asked shocked.

"I mean, of course it worked!" she corrected.

"Oh, so you're a vampire again, Angel?" Spike said with a secretive smirk, "You know what I discovered while beating the crap out of Giles-"

Willow glared at him warningly.  He smiled and said 'forget it'.

"Why would you beat the crap out of Giles?" Cordelia questioned.

Buffy looked at the ground as a tear slowly dripped off her chin and asked quietly, "Willow, how soon can you get together that gypsy curse?"         


	7. Coping

**Part Seven:**

A few days later…

Giles sat comfortably on the couch leafing though a book.  Cordelia walked in with his 'kiss the librarian' mug filled with blood.  He smiled at her as he took it from her grasp and stared into it with contemplation.

"This will take some getting used to," he sighed. 

Cordelia face filled with guilt as she opened her mouth to apologize.

He silenced her quickly by saying, "No, Cordelia, I know you're sorry.  Please don't say it again."

She had refused to leave after what happened to Giles.  She felt completely at fault for it and had spent the last few days cleaning his house, sun proofing every window and doing her best to aid him in any way she possibly could.  He was thankful for her help but starting to get annoyed by her incessant apologies.  Everyone was surprised at how well he seemed to take the news of his massive life change.  Buffy on the other hand was so furious with Cordelia that she couldn't even look at her.  She definitely blamed Cordelia for everything.  Spike walked in and handed Giles a box of Wheat-a-bix.

"This will give it texture," he offered with a smile.

Giles looked at the box with disgust and placed it on the coffee table.  Spike shrugged and poured a glass of bourbon.  He went back into the kitchen taking both the glass and the bottle of bourbon with him. Doyle was standing near the refrigerator, hesitantly sniffing an open Chinese food box.  Spike handed him the glass and drank a gulp out of the bottle.

"Looks like I have competition for the most ragging alcoholic around here," Doyle observed.

"I've been thinking about something," Spike said.

"Oh, yeah?" Doyle responded sipping the bourbon.

"How is it that when I slammed into you the other night, my chip didn't blast off and give me a migraine?"

"I'm half demon," he answered simply.

"I thought I sensed something funny about you." Spike smirked.  "Does the fashion plate know about this?" 

"No, as a matter a fact she doesn't," he sighed.

Spike scoffed and took another chug of the liquor.

"And you're not going to enlighten her," Doyle warned.

"Oh, really?" Spike countered.

"Yeah," Doyle stated throwing away the Chinese food.

"What makes you so sure?" Spike asked.

"Let's just say I've noticed you and the red head making puppy eyes at each other," Doyle replied, "Now, I don't know this Buffy character very well, but I'm thinking she would not like that one bit."

"You know what?  I like you," Spike smirked at him.

"Aye, but keep those puppy eyes on the red haired lass," Doyle joked.

Spike chuckled as Cordelia walked in carrying the empty mug.  Doyle quickly stiffened at her arrival.

"There are entirely way too many accents flying around in this room," she muttered as she washed out the mug in the sink. "For someone who doesn't like pig's blood very much, he sure did slurp that cupful down pretty fast!"  

Spike gave Doyle a knowing glance and left the room.  Doyle watched Cordelia do the dishes in silence.  He soon noticed she had tears running down her cheeks.  He leaned in and wiped then from her face with his thumbs.  She looked him in the eyes, her lips trembling.  He smiled weakly at her and pulled her into a tight hug.

"It'll take time, princess, but the pain will fade," he soothed.

"What do you know about guilt?" she asked bluntly.

"More than you'd think," He sighed. "There are some things I need to tell you."

She looked up at him expectantly.

"I don't know how to tell you this," He started slowly, "but I'm half… half demon."

He averted his eyes quickly frightened by what her's would revile.  She stepped back and rubbed her tears way.  She considered him for a while then sighed.

"Figures," she stated simply.

"I'd understand it if you were disgusted," he said quietly still staring at the floor.

"Please," she said, "Remember, I grew up on a hell mouth.  It could be worse.  You could be short, or fat."

He looked at her in surprise; this was not the reaction he expected from her.

She smiled and said, "Don't take what I'm about to say to you as any hope that you might have a chance with me, but you're still Doyle, my badly dressed super hero.  You're still the nicest guy I know and one of the few people I haven't down anything horrible to as of late.  So what if you have demon blood in you?  Angel's a demon and I work for him.  What made you think I'd be disgusted?"

"Well, you don't seem like the type to not be disgusted."

"I'm a little insulted but I can see how you'd think that," she said with a smile, "So this big secrete is why you know all about guilt?  In my opinion, I think what I did was ten times worse."

"There's more." he sighed and continued, "When I first discovered what I was, I was completely disgusted with myself and very confused.  It ruined my marriage to Harry.  Right after I drove her off, this demon came to me for my help.  I turned him away because I was too frightened of my other half to help him.  He and his family were murdered because of me.  I caused lives to be taken.  It was more guilt than I could bear." 

"Doyle, I'm so sorry," Cordelia said softly touching his arm.

"Soon after one long drunken bender, the powers that be gave me their blessing.  Now I'm helping people.  It doesn't change what I did but it eases the pain a little.  Luckily for you, you're already in a position to help people, by helping Angel." He finished locking his eyes with hers.

She smiled and kissed him softly on the cheek.

"Thanks," she whispered.

He stared at her for a minute, slightly shocked by her lips touching his cheek.  She went back to washing the dishes and he continued to watch her in awe.  He leaned over like his was about to kiss her back when she stopped him by lifting her hand up. 

"I told you not to get any ideas," she said quickly.

"Right, where ever would I get these crazy ideas from anyway?" he asked raising his eyes to the ceiling.

She finished cleaning up and left the kitchen without responding.  Doyle finished his glass of liquor in one gulp.

Willow stared at the lap top screen intently trying to decipher the ancient text in one of Giles' smelly old books.  She was beyond frustrated with how long it was taking her.  The book boasted of being able to return a soul to a vampire permanently, with out a clause like Angel's gypsy curse.  Stacks of reference books surrounded her on Giles' desk as she endlessly plugged words into an ancient text translator web site.  Willow hadn't stopped researching since she used the curse to get Giles' soul back.  She was desperate to give him some sort of life, even if he was a vampire, he deserved to love and be loved.  The gypsy curse was a poor substitute for that and she wouldn't rest until she found something better.  Maybe she could do the same for some of the other vampires around here if they wanted her to.  She groaned and rubbed her forehead, which had a rapidly expanding headache growing inside it.  Suddenly she felt two unmistakable cool hands on her shoulders.  She smiled as the owner of the hands began to softly massage her.

"Spike," she said her smile growing.

"You feel a little tense, love," he murmured softly.

He leaned in over her shoulder to read what she was studying.  She shivered inside because out of the corner of her eye, she saw that his face was only inches from hers.     

"Could it be all this reading you have been up to?" he inquired turning his head slightly to look at her, "Souls, curses and vampires?  Pretty heavy stuff.  What exactly are you trying to do, Red?"

"Give Giles' his soul back," she answered stoically.

"News flash, you already did that," he replied.

"In a really crappy way!" she cried, "I want him to have a semi normal life, and if he can lose his soul that easily, well we're all in danger."

"I wouldn't worry too much about any one getting horizontal with that tweed infested bugger," Spike assured.

"I wouldn't be so sure," Willow smiled slyly, "When I cracked into his e-mails…there were some pretty steamy ones in there!"

"Willow!  You little pervert," Spike teased.

"I didn't read them!" Willow cried, "On purpose…" 

Spike laughed and asked, "Are you sure they were from a woman?"

Willow narrowed her eyes at him and replied, "Unless you know any guys named Olivia!"

"Well, I guess he's got that Liberian thing going for him, some birds are really into that smart guy routine," Spike said looking pensive, "And I know I've heard him playing guitar and singing that god awful free bird song.  I'm not one for drunken biker music myself, but he's not bad."

"Giles?" Willow asked him skeptically, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, you'd probably swoon over it," he commented running his eyes over her face.

Willow wrinkled her nose, "Eww, I would not!  Giles is like a father figure to me… an out of work Liberian father figure, but a father figure none the less."

"Look, you want to go some where?" Spike asked her suddenly.

She stared at him blankly.

"With me?" he tried to clarify.

She continued to stare at him in disbelief.

"Come on, Red," he encouraged her, "You've been at this research crap for two days now, you could use a break, and I'm bloody tired of all the drama going on around here as of late."

"I really need to finish this, Spike," she sighed tearing her eyes away from his blue ones with difficultly.

"Red, don't tell you're not fed up with the Irish bloke following the cheerleader around with puppy dog eyes while she spills out incessant apologies to the watcher who is keeping up with his depressing pseudo-brave front as the slayer whines about droopy boys injuries, and to top it all off, the poof being all extra poofy?!" Spike rattled off without pausing to take a breath.

"First of all, don't make fun of my friends," Willow warned him, "second of all, yes I really am!"

"So, you want to get shit faced?" Spike asked her with a devilish grin on his face,

"No, but I can watch you," she smiled softly.

"If you're going out for a night on the town with Sunnyhell's finest, you're getting shit faced!" he laughed and grabbed their coats as he pulled her out the door by the arm.


	8. A night on the town with a creature of t...

**Part eight:**

The door to the bronze flew open abruptly and a large bouncer tossed Spike out on his ass.  He rolled on to his back and laughter erupted from him.  Willow drunkenly stumbled outside soon after, giggling to herself.  

"We'll bring our business elsewhere!" Willow shouted back at the doorman.

She walked towards the hysterical, prone Spike.  

She kneeled next to him on the ground and asked him in a slurred voice, "Are you okay?"  

He laughed again and she joined in with her giggles.

"Let's the hell out of here," Spike said breathlessly once he stopped laughing.

"Yeah, these jerks don't understand us," she stated struggling to help him to his feet.

"Since when is it against the law to defend yourself, anyhow?" Spike asked resting his arm on Willow's shoulder.

"That guy was totally asking for it," she offered.

"Bloody git was staring at us…mostly you," Spike almost growled, "but how can I blame him?"

Willow grinned up at him and they both stumbled.  

"Whoa, Red, that's quite enough for you," he slurred.

They made their way down the street in a zigzag pattern trying to keep their balance.  Willow giggled as Spike started singing "Light my fire" to her.

"Come on baby, light my fire, come on baby, light my…" he trailed off and stopped in front of Willy's bar. "Let's go in here," he slurred guiding Willow inside.

"Spike, no," she whimpered, feeling suddenly very sober at the idea of being around a bunch of blood thirsty bad guys, "Demons hate me…" 

"Oh, shush, I like you and I'm a demon!" Spike retorted pulling her inside. 

Once inside, Spike pulled her over to the bar and sat down on a stool patting the one next to him.  She reluctantly sat down and Spike bought her beer.  She sipped it and gazed over the patrons.  None of them seemed to recognize her as the slayer's little friend.  That thought relaxed her a little and her buzz slowly came back.  After a few minutes she was joking along with Spike and few of his demon buddies (at less scary ones anyway).  Suddenly a scaly hand grasped her shoulder tightly.  She looked at the monster that it belonged to in confusion.  

"Excuse me?" she asked him, "Why are you touching me?"

"You're a pretty one," he growled.

"Um, I'm kinda with him," she replied warily gesturing to Spike.

"Not any more," he grunted tightening his grip on her arm, "If that's Spike, then word has he can't do much to stop me, little girl."

"Spike," she squeaked as the demon pulled her off the bar stool.

Spike looked up and scowled at the tall brute holding Willow hostage.

"Put down the lady, I've spent a long time building up this buzz and I'd prefer to not ruin it on the likes of you," Spike said in a low voice.

The demon placed Willow back on the bar stool and glared at Spike.

"Bring on chip head!" he growled.

The monster lifted his arm about to deck Spike.  In the process he elbowed Willow in the eye accidentally.

"Ow!" she cried holding a hand to her eye, "That really hurt!"

"That's it!" Spike shouted and decked the monster in the face, "Don't fuck with my lady!" 

The monster looked at him in shock as he realized the chip wasn't working.  He shrugged and ran at Spike tackling him roughly.  They rolled to the floor in a blur of fists.  Willow sighed and drank her beer with a content look on her face.  She was too drunk to care about the violent situation.  _This is hot.  She thought to herself as Willy called to the larger patrons to help him break it up._

A few minutes later they were wandering the streets again.  Willow supported Spike's weight the best she could with her wobbly, drunken legs.  Spike took a swig out of the bottle of beer Willow had taken from the bar.

"Thanks Spike," Willow said.

"Anything for my Red," he slurred back and started humming 'Light my fire.'

"No one has ever, I'm serious, ever, done something like that for me!" she stated with effort, "It was sooo hot!"  She started giggling again, "I can't believe I just said that!  Ha!" 

"Really?" he asked in the most sober voice he could offer.

"Well, Buffy's kinda done that for me but I didn't think it was hot.  That'd be really…" Willow trailed off.

"Sexy of you?" Spike offered.

Willow mock glared at him and replied, "Buffy's right, you are a pig!"

Spike laughed so hard it jarred Willow.  "That's me!" he laughed.

"I don't want to go home yet," she sighed.

They were walking near the graveyard and Willow decided to go inside.  Spike stumbled along with her.  They kept laughing and giggling in slurred voices.  Suddenly Willow tripped causing them to both tumble to the ground.  They laughed harder rolled around in the sweet smelling grass.  Finally they both cooled down and stretched out on their backs gazing up at the night sky.  After a few minutes Spike propped himself up on his arm and looked at Willow with a smile playing on his lips.

"Isn't it beautiful, Spike?" Willow asked staring at the millions of tiny stars blinking in the sky.

"You're beautiful," he responded softly.

"It's so big," she said in awe ignoring his comment.

"Yeah I get that a lot," he snickered.

Willow punched him playfully on the arm.  He grabbed her and pulled her on top of him and they rolled down a small incline behind a huge grave stone.  Spike ended up straddling her with her arms pinned over her head.  He looked into her eyes intently, then leaned down and kissed her softly.  She was surprised but gently started to kiss him back.  He let go of her hands and leaned against her body, touching her cheek gently.  Then he suddenly pulled away from her lips and looked down at her questioningly.

"Is this okay?" he asked her in a low voice.

She responded by pulling him tighter against her and pressing her lips against his.  He moaned softly as she wrapped her legs around him passionately.  She could feel his lips warming up from the contact with hers.  Her head was swimming and she felt dizzy as the realization that she was rolling around in a graveyard with Spike slipped into her mind.  She felt a stirring inside her that she hadn't felt since kissing Oz.  It felt like so long ago.  It didn't matter to her right now though; she was too wrapped in the cool hands that ran softly over her body and over her exposed stomach.  A sound of pleasure escaped her lips as Spike gently kissed her neck.  She was suddenly aware that his fingers with fiddling with her jeans' zipper.  She didn't stop him as he started kissing her stomach and began to pull her jeans down slowly.  She faintly heard a voice in the distance that sounded very familiar.  She grabbed Spike's hands to stop him as she perked her ears up.  Spike looked up at her in confusion.

"Shh," she whispered, "I hear someone…"

"So?" he whispered back.

She glared at him, "That voice sounds really familiar.  Holy shit!  It's Buffy!" she whispered in surprise buttoning her pants and scrambling to look over the grave stone.  She spotted Buffy and Angel walking slowly though the graveyard towards where they hid.  Spike crawled up behind her touching a hand to her back and looking towards where her eyes fell on the couple.  He opened his mouth to say 'bullocks' but she pressed her hand to his mouth.

"Don't, let's get out of here!" she whispered and pulled him away quickly. 

They quickly escaped the grave yard without Buffy seeing and disappeared into the night.

Angel and Buffy walked quietly though the moonlit grave yard in silence.  There was so much they both wanted to say but neither could find the words.  They gazed up at the night sky and breathed collective sighs.

"So, what was it like being human?" Buffy asked abruptly breaking the silence.

Angel looked at her nervously for a minute, cleared his throat and replied, "Interesting, painful and all together unsettling.  The food was good though, even if it was left over Chinese food."

"I'm sorry I missed it," she said wistfully.

He smiled at her and said, "Do you think Willow could really give Giles back his soul?"

"Hey, if she can get me to fall in love with Spike, she can do anything!"

Angel chuckled as Buffy stopped walking and faced him with a serious look on her face.

"Angel, she could fix your soul too, you know?" She said barely above a whisper.

Angel's eyes moistened and he replied, "I don't know if…"

"Angel!  You could be happy!" Buffy cried in a voice that told Angel what she really meant was they could be happy.

"Buffy, you don't think I know that?" he replied softly touching her cheek, "but if I was happy, how do I know that I'd be able to concentrate on my redemption?"

"I fight evil everyday, Angel, but I also choose to have a life with the living!" she countered.

"Yeah, well I'm not exactly alive, Buffy," he sighed with a look of hurt in his eyes.

Buffy knitted her eyes brows with a look close to a pout and said quietly, "Angel, that's not fair…"

"I have a whole new life in L.A.  I couldn't just drop it and..." he trailed off as Buffy stared at him in disbelief.

"I just want you to be happy.  I didn't expect you to run back to me…" she whimpered.

"Buffy… I love you," he replied softly.

She wrapped her arms around him and started crying into his chest.  Angel stroked her hair trying to calm her down.

"I love you too," she spoke into his chest in a muffled voice.  "I think life has been nothing but cruel to us…maybe it's time for us to have a chance at true happiness."

He kissed her softly on the forehead and angled her face upwards to look in her eyes.

"I'll see what the spell entails…if the risk is low I'll think about," he told her and she nodded.

He stared into her eyes brushing the tears from her cheeks.  She leaned in as he softly pressed his lips to hers.


	9. Hangover

**Part nine:**

Willow groaned as she opened her eyes.  The sunlight in the room burned her eyes and she squinted.  She tentatively touched her throbbing head and decided she should renounce drinking forever.  She focused with difficulty on her alarm clock which read 11:30.  Looking around the dorm and Buffy's empty bed she reasoned that if Buffy had slept here last night, she was long gone by now.  The events of the previous night flashed in her mind.  She turned red and put her hand to her head.  She winced in pain as her hand came in contact with her eye.  _What the hell?_  She got up quickly and rushed to the mirror.  She was shocked to find that her eye was swollen and bruised.  Sunglasses it is.  

After leaving the cemetery last night, Spike had walked her back to the dorm and stumbled off into the night.  She wondered how far it would of gone if Buffy and Angel hadn't showed up.  At least she had been sober enough to recognize their voices.  That would have been quite a scene to behold.  Spike straddling her behind a gravestone and herself smelling like cheap booze.  That surly would have ended with a pile of dust where Spike used to be.  She sighed to herself and wondered what the hell was she thinking?  Spike was a vampire, evil to the core and quite proud of the fact.  He had killed dozens and dozens of innocent people, plus two slayers to top it off.  She felt like she was betraying Buffy.      

But she had never been kissed like that before in her life.  It was pure passion…drunken passion but passion none the less.  It had felt like he wanted to consume her, own her soul and every part of her body.  She wanted him so bad it burned.  She had never wanted Oz like that, she had loved Oz.  Their relationship was like a summer's day and sunshine.  Any relationship she might have with Spike would be like a sunny day in hell.  She rolled her eyes at herself for even thinking a creature like Spike would be interested in her for a relationship.  He had loved Dru, but she wasn't anything like Dru.  First of all she wasn't a crazy bitch, or a sexual freak, and the obvious fact that she wasn't a vampire.  Oh, God, what if he wanted to make her one!  Willow remembered all to well the freaky individual her vampire counterpart had been.  Yuck!  Plus she really liked the sun…and puppies.  She bet Spike had eaten a puppy…oh, God.  And how gross would blood taste?  Suddenly her hangover caught up to her and she ran quickly to the bathroom as her stomach turned in protest of the colorful visuals her mind was providing for her.

Doyle sipped a glass of brandy as he looked over the work Willow had done on the soul binding spell.  She was an intelligent little lass.  He could see what Spike saw in her.  That and she was a bit of a stiffener, too.  He couldn't help but worry about her, though.  She had a lot of power.  He could feel it vibrating off her if he stood close enough to her.  It added to her allure.  He felt as though she hadn't always been so strong, as if she had been quite weak in her not so recent past.  He had seen was sudden power could do to people.  It made them cocky.  Cast a few difficult spells and you soon feel addicted.  He knew about addiction and it hit best when someone was down.  

He wondered where the werewolf character had disappeared to.  He vaguely remembered Cordi saying that Willow had been heavily involved with him.  That wasn't too long ago either.  Suddenly the whole Spike thing made sense.  She was on the rebound.  This wasn't gonna end good.  Spike seemed completely smitten with her, what would happen to her if she suddenly changed her mind?  He was a very dangerous person even if he seemed to of changed for the better.  Doyle furrowed his brow in concern.  If he hurt her, Doyle would probably kill him.

The front door opened as Willow tentatively walked in.  Doyle looked up at her questioningly as he spotted the big black sunglasses she wore.  She was carrying a bunch of books in her arms and didn't notice him sitting on the back of Giles' couch.

"Want help with those?" he asked her.

She cried out, startled by his voice and dropped her stack of books.  They crashed to the floor and she hurriedly rushed to pick them up.  He knelled down to help her and inspected her out of the corner of his eye.  

"Thank you," she said breathlessly, "I didn't see you there.  I'm kinda out of it on account of me not getting much sleep last night… you know college dorms."  She finished with a nervous laugh.

She looked up when he didn't respond, and found him staring at her.

"What?" she asked confused.

"Angel's going to smell him on you," Doyle replied softly.

"What-" she began to ask when he stopped her.

"I'm only part demon, you know, and I can smell it on you," he explained surprising himself by admitting his true nature to her so easily.

"You're what?" she asked surprised.

"Part demon, that's not important now.  Okay?" he said quickly, "If you want to keep your little tryst a secret, we need to get you out of here for a while.  Angel knows Spike's smell…being his sire and all."

Willow looked utterly defeated.  Doyle sighed thinking about how truly young she was.  

"Come on we'll go to Bickford's or something.  I'll buy you coffee.  You look like you were partying a little too much last night," he winked at her and helped her stand up, "Leave the books here, you've already made a lot of head way on that spell, a few more hours won't hurt."

She put the books on the desk and let him lead her out to Angel's car.

"So when are you gonna show me that shiner?" Doyle asked her abruptly while Willow poured a huge amount of sugar into her coffee.

She sighed and slowly pulled her glasses off her nose.  She looked away from him nervously as his eyes widened at the extent of her black eye.  He lifted her chin gently with the tips of his fingers to get a better look at it.  He whistled though his teeth.

"Who the hell hit you, the hulk?" he asked hoping she didn't Spike.  He really didn't feel like kicking his ass, or more like it, getting Angel to kick his ass.

"Some stupid scaly guy at Willy's," she responded matter of factly. 

"I hope you mean he had really bad psoriasis," Doyle replied after almost choking on his sip of coffee.

"No, scales, green ones.  Spike kicked his ass," Willow said wistfully.

"Willow, I know I don't know you very well but…" Doyle began slowly.

"If you're gonna ask me out, this kinda a bad time for me," Willow said with a smile.

Doyle felt his face get hot which was a reaction he wasn't expecting himself to have, "No, actually I just wanted to make sure you understand what you're getting yourself into."

"What ever do you mean?" she replied innocently.  "The fact that I'm all tingly over a cold, blood sucking vampire?  I know the drill.  I mean I live on a hell mouth, you know…"

Doyle looked uncomfortable and stared down into his coffee.  Willow sighed feeling guilty.

"Look, I'm sorry.  I just am really confused right now," she said quietly and touched his arm softly.

He looked up at her surprised with her willingness to make physical contact.  She held his gaze for a few minutes and a strange thought swam though his brain.  He shook his head to clear it out.

"I just want to make sure you're going be okay… Spike may appeal to the side of you that wants danger, but there's a good reason why he seems dangerous," Doyle told her with concerned eyes.

"I know…" Willow sighed, "I was on the receiving end of a very sharp glass bottle to the neck threat of his once.  I'll be careful."

Doyle nodded his head, "You don't have to answer me but I was just wondering exactly what happened between you two.  You don't get his scent all over you by playing cards with the stiff."

Willow looked offended for a minute then replied, "Nothing." 

He shrugged and sipped his coffee.

"So, um, are you and Cordelia, you know?" she asked him.

"No, I wish," he chuckled surprised at himself for offering yet another part of his life so easily to her, "I just recently told her I half demon.  She thinks I'm a fixer upper or something."

Willow suddenly looked really guilty.

"What?  Did I say something wrong?" Doyle asked concerned.

"No, it's just; did she ever tell you about Xander?" Willow asked hesitantly.

"She doesn't talk much about Sunnydale," he replied in a disappointed voice.

Willow smiled, "You said you heard a lot about me, though."

"Angel, mostly," he explained.

She nodded and took a deep breath, "Well, Cordelia and Xander used to date."

"Uh-huh, so what's her problem with me then?" he asked jokingly.

"I'll get to that," she continued as Doyle gave her a worried look, "Well, as far she was concerned she took a big risk with him because well, she was popular, and Xander, not so much."

"Ah," he responded trying to grasp the high schooler's way of thinking.

"Xander and I are very good friends.  We have been since forever ago.  About a year and a half ago, Xander and I were held captive by a certain blonde vampire."

"And you still like this guy?  You are one understanding lady."

She smiled.  "Anyway, long story short, we were locked in the basement of a burned out factory feeling a very real sense of impending death and we kissed.  Cordi and my boyfriend at the time, Oz," Doyle noticed a flicker of pain in her eyes as she said his name, "busted in to rescue us at that very inopportune moment."

Doyle waited for her to continue as she looked into her coffee mug with a melancholy frown on her face.

"She also got a lovely rod shoved though her abdomen a few minutes later when the stairs collapsed as she tried to run away from what she saw.  They broke up and she vowed to never date another 'fixer-upper' again."

Doyle sighed heavily.  "I get it now…"

"If it makes you feel any better I think your wearing her down," Willow offered.

"She so damned strong willed," he mumbled.

"Just a bit," Willow quipped and finished her coffee.


End file.
